Jubby, boxer

Missing dog has tearful reunion with owner in Taunton
By Marc Larocque, GateHouse News Service
Posted Jan 19, 2011

TAUNTON — Armand Rebello was beginning to lose hope that his dog would ever return as he was getting ready for work on Tuesday morning.



Armand Rebello greets his dog, Jubby, at New England Animal Medical Center in West Bridgewater

It had been 11 days since Jubby, a 3-year-old boxer, had run away from the backyard of Rebello’s East Taunton home. There had been one sighting a few days back, but nothing had come of it.

At 5:50 a.m., as Rebello was putting on his boots, he looked up and saw two big, dark familiar eyes staring through the window from outside his door step.

But Jubby was not the same dog that left him. The dog was emaciated — his bones sticking through his small frame — and he was limping around. But he seemed happy to be home.

“I was instantly in tears,” Rebello said. “I brought him into the house. I went to open a can of wet dog food. He was gimping around trying to follow me. It hurt me to see him limping around, but he didn’t make any kind of pain noise. He was wagging his tail.”

Rebello then called his fiancée to tell her the good news and ask her to accompany him to a veterinarian. She was just as excited as he was.

“Jubby is like a member of the family,” said Colleen Fernandes. “You don’t realize how awkward it is to be in your own house when he is gone.”

Rebello took the day off from his job at a power plant in Somerset and took Jubby to New England Animal Medical Center in West Bridgewater. There, Jubby was given an IV and treated for cuts. It was discovered that Jubby had a dislocated right hip and had suffered muscular atrophy.

Dr. Karen Moulin, a member of the senior emergency staff for the animal hospital, said something bad must have happened to the dog.

“We’re assuming it was some kind of trauma,” Moulin said. “Maybe he was hit by a car or fell from something.”

Moulin added that Jubby could have slipped on some ice and injured himself.

Rebello and Fernandes initiated a search as soon as Jubby went missing, plastering local shops and restaurants with flyers carrying a photo of the dog and offering a reward for his return. Rebello said he can only imagine what Jubby went through during those 11 days.

“I’m just surprised he survived with all the odds against him,” said Rebello, noting the recent snow storms. “All I know is he wasn’t eating. He’s just swimming in his collar now. He lost so much weight.”

Rebello said he feared that hungry coyotes had gotten to Jubby.

On Thursday, Rebello said he got a call from neighbors saying they saw a dog matching the description on his flyer a day earlier. The neighbors said they tried luring the dog in with some food, but he ran back into the woods.

Rebello said Jubby went missing from his Maycomber Street backyard. Rebello was building a fire while Jubby was retrieving wood. At some point, Jubby took off.

Rebello and several neighbors combed the woods late into night, but the dog was nowhere to be found.

Growing up with foster parents on a Berkley farm, Rebello said he has always loved the companionship of animals.

He said it is different when you have a dog, though. To Rebello, 23, Jubby is his best friend and losing him was devastating.

Thursday’s sighting brought the search for Jubby back to life, Rebello said. Prior to that point, Rebello was starting to speculate that someone took the dog.

“I went out and looked for him more,” Rebello said.

In the end, Rebello didn’t find his dog. Jubby found his way home.

“You had a rough trip, huh buddy?” said Rebello, embracing Jubby at the vet’s office. “A lot of people are very happy he has come home. He’s the greatest dog. The most playful and friendly dog. He would never hurt a thing.”

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/raynham/fun/pets/x1409897921/Missing-dog-has-tearful-reunion-with-owner-in-Taunton#axzz1ML5rNRAO